That freedom is above the name. Freedom Quotes

January 9 marks 109 years since birth Simone de Beauvoir- French writer, one of the first women teachers of philosophy, the ideologist of feminism. Their alliance with J.-P. Sartre was one of the most extravagant in the twentieth century. At the very beginning of the relationship, they agreed that they would not register a marriage and restrict each other's freedom. They had common views on life and ... common young mistresses. But free love turned out to be much more painful than both expected.

Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre met while studying at the Sorbonne. “I felt like I met my doppelgänger. I knew that he would remain in my life forever,” she said after their meeting. Sartre first saw in the girl an interlocutor of equal intelligence, she operated freely philosophical categories and often prevailed in disputes.

Simone de Beauvoir was impressed by the freedom of judgment of a new acquaintance. He, just like her, rebelled against the bourgeois way of life and did not recognize the traditional institution of the family. Both dreamed of the free coexistence of two independent personalities, both did not want children. “Children kill love,” said Simone de Beauvoir.

Instead of a marriage proposal, Sartre announced to his chosen one a "manifesto of love": firstly, no fetters, no property and joint household. Live in a hotel, and on different floors. Complete freedom of movement. Everyone can leave and come when they want. Secondly, the full right of both parties to casual relationships and love. Thirdly, the utmost frankness with each other. Simone accepted this manifesto unconditionally, not imagining how this "marriage" would turn out for her.

IN intimate relationships the couple were not in harmony and soon decided to end them, admitting their "complete failure in this area". But this did not lead to parting, they still considered each other the closest people. Soon Sartre had a mistress - she was the daughter of Russian emigrants Olga Kozakevich. She was a student of Simone de Beauvoir and, as it turned out, they had a relationship that went beyond friendship. So in their “philosophical union” a third appeared for the first time, and later this was repeated more than once with other partners.

Despite all her breadth of views, Simone was never able to overcome jealousy. Sartre added fuel to the fire, telling her all the intimate details of his many connections - after all, they agreed on the utmost frankness. In desperation, the woman hooked up with one of Sartre's former students and hurried to report all the details of their intimacy.

In the first book of Simone de Beauvoir, the love triangle was resolved by the murder of a common mistress - such a plot twist spoke much more about her real feelings and true attitude towards marital fidelity and marriage than all their official "manifestos". Once in a letter, she admitted that tenderness can arise between two, but not between three people.

Sartre did not let her go until the end of her days. “My incomparable love,” he wrote to Simone. “You are the most perfect, the smartest, the best and the most passionate. You are not only my life, but also the only sincere person in it. Nevertheless, he continued to have affairs with others.

Simone de Beauvoir responded by having an affair with the American writer Nelson Algren. He wanted to marry her, but she chose to stay with Sartre. “I can’t leave him, I can’t leave him for a long time and therefore I can’t give my whole life to anyone else,” she tried to explain the reasons for her refusal. Algren broke up with her after Simone told the world all the details of their relationship in her new novel. He could not forgive her for this until the end of his days: “I have been to brothels all over the world, and a woman always closes the door, whether in Korea or India. But this woman opens the door wide open, inviting the public and the press to watch ... ".

Once Sartre became interested in a young student from Algeria and when he could not marry her, he adopted her and transferred all rights to his literary inheritance. In response, Simone adopted one of her young friends, bequeathing her money and labors to her. This strange relationship lasted 51 years and ended only with the death of Sartre in 1980. “His death separates us. Mine will connect us again. It's just great that we were given so much to live in complete harmony, ”wrote Simone de Beauvoir. She survived the chosen one by 6 years, died all alone and was buried next to him.

Simone de Beauvoir's book The Second Sex, which is associated with the beginning of the sexual revolution in the 1960s, was perceived as a feminist manifesto, its postulates became as popular as.

Everyone says they want to be free and independent. But these are just words. What exactly do we want? And why? What is freedom? These complex questions have troubled mankind for many centuries. A single answer has not yet been found, and it is hardly possible. This is because freedom is a rather ambiguous concept. And this excludes the possibility of its only correct definition for all. Therefore, quotes about freedom exist in a wide variety of meanings. We have collected the most worthy of them here so that you yourself, after reading them, can determine what exactly the concept of freedom means directly to you.

The concept of freedom

You can't be free from what you're running from.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Free is the one who can not lie.
Albert Camus

Basically, a person shows freedom only in the choice of dependence.
Hermann Hesse

Freedom cannot be complete. She either is, or she is not.
Anatoly Nekrasov

Freedom exists only for someone who aspires somewhere.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Freedom does not make people happy, it just makes them people.
Manuel Azana

Freedom is like the sun. There is nothing more powerful and better than it in the world.
Jorge Amado

No man loses freedom except through his own weakness.
Mahatma Gandhi

Only a free person respects the rights and freedoms of other people.
Alexander Lowen

The search for freedom is the basis of human nature.
Ai Weiwei

Many great minds interpret freedom as an unconditional human right to free choice of worldview guidelines and way of life. One of the principles of the idea of ​​freedom is the idea that the freedom of one individual ends where it encounters the freedom of another. I think this is the right approach, and many quotes about freedom confirm this. Because a person is always free to think, build an inner world, observe himself and others, help others. And, of course, he can choose his position regarding the outside world.

About freedom with meaning

The freedom to wave your arms ends at the tip of the other person's nose.
Immanuel Kant

A person's actions are never as predictable as when he is presented with complete freedom.
Andrey Shvets

It is the fear of losing something that keeps us in bondage. And when you have nothing to lose, it turns out that all you have left is freedom.
David Icke

Freedom is the highest value. And if love does not give you freedom, then it is not love.
Osho

Every person has the right to be free, but only the strong can use this right.

Freedom lies at the very heart of your willingness to lose everything.
Karl Renz

Open up to your deepest fear; after fear loses its grip on you, the fear of freedom diminishes and disappears. You are free.
Jim Morrison

In order to live freely and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It's not always an easy sacrifice.
Richard Bach

Abstract freedom, like other abstractions, does not exist.
Edmund Burke

Freedom is not for everyone. This is the privilege of cultured people. Only a person capable of self-restraint has the right to be free. And the rules of self-restraint are determined by culture.
Alexander Zapesotsky

And freedom is an expressive indicator human essence. After all, a mature person is able to prove himself, to take place only thanks to the ability to show his personal will, to make a choice of a form of life and worldview. And here no quotes about freedom will help. So to solve the problem, the philosophical idealized category of "freedom" glorified in many aphorisms correlates and coexists with its real embodiment only you yourself can.

Best Freedom Quotes

It is better to be a free poor man than a rich slave. Of course, people want to be rich and free - and because of this they sometimes become poor slaves.
Albert Camus

Only one road leads to freedom: contempt for that which does not depend on us.
Epictetus

You have the right to choose, but you do not use it. You just don't understand what it means to choose.
Vadim Zeland

The worst thing is not that the world is not free, but that people have forgotten how to be free.
Milan Kundera

Freedom is an adventure that has no end, in which we risk our lives and even more than life for the sake of a few moments of something beyond words, thoughts and feelings.
Carlos Castaneda

Freedom begins with the word "no"; but sometimes, very rarely, it still begins with the word "yes."
Henry Lyon Oldie

No oppression will make a slave who is free in his soul.
Alexandra Deville

There is always time between a stimulus and our response to it. During this time, we choose how to respond. And this is where our freedom lies.
Victor Frankl

There is no freedom as such, the only question is what to be free from: from wisdom or from stupidity.
Evgeny Antonyuk

To be free like a bird? And all my life to sing the same thing?
Stanislav Jerzy Lec

Searching for an answer to the question of what freedom is in statements and quotes is the same as looking for answers to questions among aphorisms, what is happiness, what is love. This is something that is better to feel than to look for the correct definition among hundreds of phrases.

Clever sayings of the great ones about human freedom

There is meaning in life when there is freedom - the freedom to do what you want and not be afraid of anything.
Emir Kusturica

To be able to be free is nothing, it is difficult to be able to be free.
André Gide

Freedom is like white clouds. When you make it your goal, it is pure and concrete. After you use it, it turns into a beautiful void.
Feng Jicai

Choice is freedom. The one who can choose is free. The one who is forced to choose is a slave.
Krzysztow Zanussi

He who is kind is free, even if he is a slave; one who is angry is a slave, even if he is a king.
Aurelius Augustine

From birth, a free and natural voice is given to a person. But over the years, clamps in the larynx, a hunched back, internal tension distort its true essence.
Valeria Fominova

A free man chooses his own prohibitions.
Valery Afonchenko

The less a person needs - the more happy he is, the more desires - the less freedom.
Maksim Gorky

The biggest slavery is not having freedom, to consider yourself free.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A person is truly free only when he does not depend on anyone.
Boris Akunin

Freedom is a very vague concept. And, unfortunately, many confuse it with permissiveness. But we must take into account that freedom consists not only of the right to choose, but also of the desire to take responsibility for everything that happens in life. The real feeling of freedom comes from within and cannot be imposed from outside in any way. If in one phrase, then freedom lies in the fact that a person himself makes a choice of what his life should be, and having made this choice, he is responsible for his every action and his act. Everything seems to be simple, but many people do not want or are afraid to take responsibility for their actions and rely on the choice of third parties. It can be a boss at work, a loved one, parents, and of course the president and the government... Can you call it freedom? Hardly!

Beautiful phrases about freedom

Freedom ends where responsibility begins.
Sergey Kapitsa

Freedom is a heavy burden, a great, mysterious burden for the soul. It is not easy to carry it. It's not a gift, but a choice you made; and this choice can have the most unexpected consequences. The path of freedom leads upward to the light, but if its burden is too heavy, one may never reach the end of the path.
Ursula Le Guin

Man is destined to be free.
Jean Paul Sartre

Once you feel freedom, you will not refuse it.
Anna Todd

Love can manifest itself only in conditions of freedom and never - as a result of coercion.
Erich Fromm

Freedom is a wonderful thing, except for the freedom to make mistakes.
Malala Yousufzai

That person is not free who is not his own master.
Epictetus

Vyacheslav Maltsev

If we give up freedom for the sake of security, we lose both.
Fedor Dostoevsky

Nobody is free. Even a bird is tied to the sky.
Bob Dylan

Freedom is an equation with many conditions that, through additions and subtractions, allows you to make decisions in accordance with your needs and views. Almost all quotes about freedom confirm that this is a desired state for everyone. And in the same way, many sayings and phrases confirm that freedom is impossible without responsibility. And we have to study for a long time to be able to manage these two concepts equally well, because without responsibility there will be no freedom.

Freedom statuses are short

Freedom presupposes limitations, is based on them.
Viktor Frankl

Freedom can only be inside a person, no matter how huge the cage around him is.

Vyacheslav Ash

Peace is inseparable from freedom, because one cannot find peace for those who do not have freedom.
Malcolm X

Freedom is different. Freedom from bondage is sweet. Freedom from conscience is destructive. Freedom from love is dreary.
Timofey Tsarenko

Everyone needs freedom like air. In fact, most people don't think so. But this is simply because a person does not know how to appreciate what he has.
Elena Kotova

Freedom is determined by the number of people you can send.
Sergei Yursky

The artist appreciates not only creativity, but also his protest against conventions. He must be the embodiment of freedom.
André Maurois

Care more about what you think than about what others think. This is what freedom is.
Demmy Moor

In most cases, we build our own prison. And in the same way, a person creates his freedom.
Robin Hobb

For some reason, the world is so arranged that the overseers of slaves scream loudest about freedom.
Samuel Johnson

To be free is to understand freedom. And then act. Freedom is the ability of a person to act as he considers right on the basis of knowledge of objective reality. Freedom is the ability to choose options for events. No choice equals no freedom. Therefore, many smart statements about freedom and talk about the importance of choice.

Quotes of great people about freedom

There are two good things in life: freedom of thought and freedom of action.
Somerset Maugham

Freedom is just a beautiful word, meaning that there is nothing to lose.
Janis Joplin

Learn to be free! A slave dreams of having the right to choose his master, and a free man - to be a master in any choice.
Andrey Lazarchuk

Man has an obligation to himself to be free.
Albert Pike

Unlimited freedom is like an ax in the hands of an idiot: it will hurt others and cripple itself.
Yuri Bucharsky

There is no single concept of freedom. She is for everyone. And as long as personal freedom does not interfere with the lives of others, it probably has the right to be considered exactly freedom.
Oksana Demchenko

Freedom is a double-edged sword. Without commitment, a person often does less, not more.
Anita Bruckner

The more enlightened people are, the freer they are.
Voltaire

Freedom creates man.
Ekaterina Alimpieva

Freedom is only good when you use it.
Sergei Bodrov

As one quote goes, freedom is not what people want, it's who or what they really are. And a person achieves the greatest freedom when freedom becomes a choice of oneself, when a person takes responsibility for his life and for what is happening in the world around him. That is why it is so important to assess what is happening around. A person has freedom of choice and is solely responsible for what happens to him. People are free to choose any life, and our realities are the attitude to what is happening. Therefore, it is not enough to say the right things, it is not enough just to read the right statements and quotes about freedom with meaning, one must act correctly.

Its place in the system of the social whole. In the early stages of the development of human thought (for example, in Ancient Greece) Liberty more often Total was considered as an opportunity to organize the life of a person and the state on the basis of reason, in spite of blind fate. This stage in understanding freedom distinguishes the undivided unity of the various principles of its understanding. In the philosophical and religious tradition of the Middle Ages...

https://www.site/journal/142262

Or your personal or social restrictions. I declare complete, even more complete than you can imagine freedom in the spiritual. Liberty are the kingdoms of God. Any restrictions are the kingdoms of Satan. Catch my words as the divine rays of the spiritual... rules of this game or get all the bonuses and qualities to win this game, in any case, try to get freedom from Total this. This is what it means to love your neighbor. The mad dog attacked the child. It is necessary, if necessary, to kill this ...

https://www.html

Only enlightenment and culture will be the means of spreading spirituality into the world and mastering it. Total peace. And the methods of violence will be heaped up in the old barn of humanity... will it end? Only when we understand that in the spiritual only FREEDOM determines the degree of a person's spirituality, when a PERSON IS ONLY FREE AND CAN BE ... inadequate, prone to violence, aggression and delinquency. All this is much exceeds the "benefit" of alcohol. That is, if a person and humanity gets something ...

https://www.html

To evil, according to the causeless choice of God's will, for which he was subjected to church condemnation. Subsequently, the question of freedom the will was discussed by Anselm of Canterbury, in the spirit of Augustine, and more fully by Bernard of Clairvaux. The latter distinguishes between natural desire ... the great scholastic Duns Scotus, who recognized - five centuries before Schopenhauer - the absolute beginning Total will, not mind; he asserts unconditional freedom will in his exemplary formula: nothing but one's own will causes an act of volition...

https://www.site/journal/141028

Freedom of speech in the context of Charlie Hebdo

On the Internet (for example, on the website of my institute www.philprob.narod.ru) by name. As for the current barrage of discussions freedom words, then before Total, strikes with its rational helplessness, lack of even elementary logic, identification (in the West) freedom words from freedom insults. Especially, in combination with the so-called political correctness, according to which you can’t call a black man a black man, but you need to ...

https://www.site/journal/145938

Above understanding is Your love, Lord

Above reason is Your love, Lord,
My Savior! But I want your love
Know the fullness. And she has all the power
height, bliss to contemplate.

Above words, Lord, Your love.
But my soul yearns for living words,
So that the sinners who perished ...

https://www.site/poetry/154986

Freedom and Will... another capture

Freedom!!! Just an illusion?... no more?...
We have been cherishing this WORD for centuries!?
IT'S A DREAM! Ready to look for her!?
Perhaps even?... to fight for Her!?
However!... you have to break away from illusions!?
Let's figure it out! We are not gods!?
And after that... let's just summarize...

If you can't say "No", your "Yes" is worthless too. Osho.

Don't teach others, don't try to change them. It is enough that you change yourself - this will be your message. Osho.

The only person on earth we have the power to change is ourselves Osho.

Just watch why you create a problem. The solution to the problem is at the very beginning, when you first create it - don't create it! You don't have any problems - just understand that.

Any borrowed truth is a lie. Until it is experienced by yourself, it is never true. Osho.

What difference does it make who is stronger, who is smarter, who is more beautiful, who is richer? After all, in the end, it only matters whether you are a happy person or not? Osho.

To fall is a part of Life, to rise to one's feet is its Living. Being Alive is a Gift, and being Happy is your CHOICE. Osho.

If you don't change right now, you will never change. No need for endless promises. You either change or you don't, but be honest. Osho.

Until you can say "no", your "yes" will not make any sense. Osho

Reasons are within ourselves, outside are just excuses... Osho

If you can wait forever, you don't have to wait at all. Osho.

Before knocking on the right door, a person knocks on thousands of wrong doors. Osho.

In this very moment, you can drop all problems because they are all created by you. Osho.

When you are sick, call a doctor. But most importantly, call those who love you, because there is no medicine more important than love. Osho.

If you have lied once, then you will be forced to lie a thousand and one times to cover up the first lie. Osho.

When you think you are deceiving others, you are only deceiving yourself. Osho.

The child comes clean, nothing is written on it; there is no indication of who he should be - all dimensions are open to him. And the first thing to understand is that a child is not a thing, a child is a being. Osho

Don't take life as a problem, it's a mystery of amazing beauty. Drink from it, it's pure wine! Be full of it! Osho.

I don't have any biography. And everything that is considered a biography is absolutely meaningless. When I was born, in what country I was born - it does not matter. Osho.

To die for anyone, for anything, is the easiest thing in the world. Living for anything is the hardest thing. Osho.

Bliss is the only criterion for life. If you do not feel that life is bliss, then know that you are going in the wrong direction. Osho.

People believe in the immortality of the soul, not because they know, but because they are afraid. How cowardly man, the more likely that he believes in the immortality of the soul - not because he is religious; he's just a coward. Osho.

Don't run from yourself, you can't be anyone else. Osho.

The head is always thinking about how to get more; the heart always feels like giving more. Osho.

Don't expect perfection, and don't ask or demand it. Love ordinary people. There is nothing wrong with ordinary people. Ordinary people are extraordinary. Every person is so unique. Respect this uniqueness. Osho.

Suffering is the result of taking life seriously; bliss is the result of the game. Take life as a game, enjoy it. Osho.

Sin is when you don't enjoy life. Osho.

If you are calm the whole world becomes calm for you. It's like a reflection. Everything that you are is fully reflected. Everyone becomes a mirror. Osho.

Without you, this universe will lose some poetry, some beauty: there will be a lack of song, there will be a lack of notes, there will be an empty gap. Osho.

The most inhuman act that a person can commit is to turn someone into a thing. Osho.

Only occasionally, very rarely, do you allow someone to enter you. That is what love is. Osho.

What's wrong with someone laughing for no reason? Why do you need a reason to laugh? A reason is needed to be unhappy; you don't need a reason to be happy. Osho.

Love is patient, everything else is impatient. Passion is impatient; love is patient. Once you understand that patience means love, you understand everything. Osho.

Get out of your head and into your heart. Think less and feel more. Do not get attached to thoughts, immerse yourself in sensations... Then your heart will come to life. Osho

On December 14 (26), 1825, an uprising of the capital's regiments took place on Senate Square in St. Petersburg, refusing to swear allegiance to the new Emperor Nicholas I. Until now, historians argue about the significance of this event and evaluate the personalities of the organizers in different ways - those who later became known as "Decembrists" . Some call them heroes who “woke up Herzen”, others call them Masons, rebels and new Jacobins, ready to destroy their own country for the sake of the triumph of their ideas.

In the Orthodox environment, a story is known about how Reverend Seraphim Sarovsky allegedly told the mother of Kondraty Ryleev that it would be better if her son had died in infancy than ended his life on the gallows. The Monk Barsanuphius of Optina, in conversations with his novice Nikolai, the future elder-confessor Nikon of Optina, retells it differently: allegedly, as a boy, Ryleev was mortally ill and his mother begged for his life, but in a dream she saw: her son recovered now, but will be executed in the future.

In the first biography of the Monk Seraphim, published in 1849, “Tales of the Feats and Events in the Life of Elder Seraphim,” it is told that one of the future Decembrists came to the monk for blessing. Sometimes he is recognized as Prince Sergei Grigoryevich Volkonsky, since he is a military man and because, when asked by St. Seraphim about religion, he answered that he was “not Russian.” The elder was at the moment of meeting with a visitor dressed in a military style at the well. The nobleman asked for blessings three times, and the elder sharply refused him three times and drove him away. Surprised by the severity of the elder, an eyewitness of the event, the Monk Seraphim showed a well in which the water suddenly became cloudy, and predicted that he and his comrades would also outrage Russia. This eyewitness was the author of the Tale himself, Hieromonk Joasaph (Tolstosheev). True, we note that the attitude towards him is ambiguous - some consider him the elder's favorite student, others - the persecutor of the Diveyevo sisters.

The attitude of the Decembrists to religion and the Church is a topic that does not have a clear answer. Among the members of secret societies who wanted to change political system, there were atheists, and supporters of the use of folk faith to achieve their goals.

One of the first and most famous organizations of the Decembrists was the Welfare Union, founded in 1818. Members of this society could only be those "who profess Christian Faith and are at least 18 years of age. This clause allowed the members of the secret society not to formally violate the laws of the Russian Empire, but in itself cannot serve as proof of the faith or atheism of the fighters for the people's happiness.

In other provisions of its charter, the Welfare Union asked its followers to report on all other societies and organizations in which they were members. The proposal meant that the Welfare Union wanted to have complete control over its supporters. In another clause of the charter, it was forbidden to talk about their belonging to the Union, but few people observed this clause, and the existence of a secret society was known not only to the authorities, but also to Griboyedov, who, in the form of Repetilov, ridiculed the grief of conspirators and rebels.

In the charter of the Welfare Union, one can also find proposals to the clergy: “The Union invites ... spiritual persons and all those who, according to their position in society, can more influence morality.” Members of the secret society were very concerned about the spread of morality in Russian society and among young people and believed that religion could play an important role in the pursuit of virtue and removal from vices.

There was even a special type of behavior of the Decembrists, partly reminiscent of the ideals of monastic holiness in Byzantine and ancient Russian hagiography. Yuri Lotman wrote that future revolutionaries strove to always be serious, never smile, and some members of secret societies claimed that they never played even in childhood. So, for example, “Russian breakfasts” at Kondraty Ryleev’s were deliberately Spartan: “Breakfast invariably consisted of: a decanter of refined Russian wine, several heads of sauerkraut and rye bread.”

However, in their ascetic deeds, the Decembrists imitated not Christian ascetics, but ancient heroes. Little Nikita Muraviev refused to participate in the children's ball until he heard from his mother an affirmative answer to the question of whether Aristides danced with Cato.

This pair of ancient heroes is not at all accidental - the author of "Comparative Lives" Plutarch, whose text became popular in Russia with late XVIII century, compares the biographies of Cato and Aristides with each other as ideal politicians in the history of Greece and Rome. Their main virtue was justice, which served as a model for the Decembrists.

Religion, on the other hand, was often of interest to future conspirators only as a way to convey their views to the people. Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, for example, argued that in the Bible one can find a direct prohibition to elect kings: “Some chapters contain direct prohibitions from God to elect kings and obey them. If a Russian soldier learns this command of God, then, without hesitation, he will agree to take up arms against his sovereign.

The attitude of the Decembrists towards the clergy was also not unambiguous. The conspirators had a rather poor understanding of the hierarchy of the Church. So the Lutheran Kuchelbecker, during the uprising on Senate Square, answered St. Petersburg Metropolitan Seraphim, who had come with exhortations: “Step back, father, it’s not your business to interfere in this matter!”

Not too much attention was paid to the clergy in program materials such as Russkaya Pravda.

Speaking about the plight of the estates under the autocracy, the Decembrists usually casually mentioned the miserable condition of the rural clergy. That was where their interest in the priesthood usually ended.

On the other hand, the Decembrists considered the question of including Metropolitan Philaret in the future government as an authoritative Moscow hierarch with fairly broad views. We find the answer to these attempts in a letter from St. Philaret to Archimandrite Athanasius dated June 16, 1826: “It is revealed more and more what horrors and abominations God has delivered us from, having strengthened the Sovereign on the 14th day of December.”

Sergei Muraviev-Apostol spoke positively about the role of priests in Russian history: “The Russian clergy has always been on the side of the people; it has always, in times of troubles of our fatherland, been a bold and disinterested defender of the rights of the people. Others were much more reserved about the clergy.

The Catholic Mikhail Lunin wrote that “The Church in the Russian Empire is one of those institutions by which the people are governed. The ministers of the church are at the same time servants of the sovereign.

The view of religion as an instrument of suppression, and of priests as hypocrites was very characteristic of those who opposed the accession to the throne of Nicholas I. against faith as such:

"Look into nature, ask history,

You will understand then at last that for God's own glory,

At the sight of the evil covering the whole world,

Even if God existed, it would be necessary to reject him"

These verses are devoted to one of the eternal problems of theodicy - the question of the permissibility of evil and the responsibility of God for the evil committed in the world. However, the denial of religion as such was not characteristic of all secret societies.

Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, already mentioned by us, wrote a special proclamation for the people, where he stated his views in the form of a catechism:

“Question Why are the Russian people and the Russian army unhappy?
Answer: Because the kings stole their freedom.

Question: So kings act contrary to the will of God?
Answer: Yes, of course, our god of rivers: pain in you, let there be a servant for you, and kings tyrannize only the people.

Question: Should kings be obeyed when they act contrary to the will of God?
Answer: No! Christ said: You cannot work for God and mammon; that is why the Russian people and the Russian army suffer because they submit to the tsars.

Question: What does our holy law command the Russian people and army to do?
Answer: To repent of long servility and, taking up arms against tyranny and misfortune, swear: let there be one king in heaven and on earth - Jesus Christ.

Sergei Muravyov's catechism adapts quotations from the Bible to the idea of ​​republican rule and even justifies regicide (a number of Decembrists spoke in favor of the assassination of Nicholas I, others suggested destroying the entire royal family as a potential source of evil for the country and its inhabitants).

The proclamation also calls freedom an absolute value, in fact placing it above human life. Note that the understanding of freedom that can be found in other secret society documents was rather limited. "Russian Truth" in the device section Russian state says that the Finns and other small nations should not be given independence, since they have always been part of Russia or other countries.

The idea of ​​the Decembrists about freedom of conscience was interesting. The draft constitution of Nikita Muravyov introduced the principle of religious tolerance: "No one can be disturbed in the performance of his worship according to his conscience and feelings, so long as he does not violate the laws of nature and morality."

Most members of the secret societies that existed in the Russian Empire from the second half of the first to the middle of the second decade of the 19th century agreed with this thesis.

It remains for us to answer the main question, is it possible to read all the Decembrists as atheists and opponents of Christianity. The texts of the participants in the uprising themselves, their memoirs do not allow for such categorical judgments, which means that those who consider the participants in the uprising on Senate Square to be saints or terrible sinners repeat the mistake of the leaders of the uprising and their opponents and use religion only as a tool for political purposes .